The practice of vipassana is the study of the self. When you study physical and mental phenomena, you are studying the truth about yourself.

When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

Life is available only in the present moment.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Enlightenment is the realization that we were never really separate from one another or from all of life.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

The difference between being caught in thoughts and being mindful of thoughts is like the difference between being in a movie and watching a movie.

If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.

When we look directly at our thoughts, they dissolve like bubbles in water.

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

As a flower that is lovely and beautiful, but is scentless, even so fruitless is the well-spoken word of one who does not practice it.

The past is for learning from, not for living in.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.

Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache: you won't be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.

The purpose of meditation is not to create a mental vacuum but to come to know one's own mind.

Meditation is not about getting away from it all. It's about getting into it all.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can't simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

Every moment of confusion is also a moment of wisdom, if we can learn to recognize it.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?